The present disclosure is related generally to methods for manufacturing large diameter tapered roller bearing cages, and in particular, to a method of manufacture for such tapered roller bearing cages which utilizes straight steel strip or plate material.
Manufacture of large tapered roller bearing cages, which are typically greater than 500 mm in diameter, is challenging work due to the fact that these bearing cages must meet high technical standards, are usually produced in low quantity, require large sized tools, and may be subject to frequent design changes. Currently, large tapered roller bearing cages are produced by spinning or ring rolling/machining processes. Spinning is a cost intensive process requiring part-specific giant mandrels and tailstocks. With increasing cage size, spinning becomes a prohibitive process due to the difficulty of locating a large enough blank for a mandrel to meet the required cage size. The cost of large sized steel plates is also increased exponentially. Similarly, ring rolling and machining processes for large cages are also very expensive.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to eliminate the use of the part-specific mandrels and tailstocks to significantly reduce the manufacturing costs of large diameter tapered roller bearing cages, especially when the numbers of cage types are large and the annual quantity for each type of cage is small. It would be further advantageous to utilize only straight metal strips, coils, or plates as raw materials in the manufacturing process, thereby reducing material supply problems even when the cage size is large and achieving the maximum material utilization.
Conventional methods for the manufacture of large diameter tapered roller bearing cages, such as spinning or ring rolling/machining processes are limited to working with materials having a maximum thickness, constrained by material formability and the tool load-carrying capacity of the forming process. Accordingly, it would be further advantageous to provide a method of manufacture which is not limited to a maximum thickness of a cage that can be formed.
Finally, it would be beneficial to provide a manufacturing process for large diameter tapered roller bearing cages which is highly flexible for quick part change-over and size adjustment, and which can achieve superior dimensional and geometric precision when utilized with advanced gauge control, feedback and numerical control systems.